If you have to choose just one MWC event, make it SCF’s 5G Panel

If you’re heading to Mobile World Congress this year, you’ll be inundated with talk of 5G. Whether you are eager to be in the first wave of 5G by 2020, or see it as a long term option for your organization, you may find the sheer volume of information at MWC bewildering. In that case, one event will be essential to make sense of it all – Small Cell Forum’s 5G Panel debate, which will take place on our stand in Hall 7 at 4pm on Tuesday March 28.

This could be the most valuable hour you spend in Barcelona. One of the few areas of consensus about 5G is that it will involve rising numbers of ever-smaller cells. So the Forum is in a unique position to bring together speakers who are at the coal face when it comes to 5G decision making.

You will hear two of the largest US operators, AT&T and Sprint, discuss their very different approaches to small cells, densification and migration to 5G. And they will also debate the technical and commercial issues of 5G with the two biggest mobile network vendors, Ericsson and Huawei.

Senior executives from all four companies will share their experiences and views, providing a detailed and real world picture of how current deployments of small cells and dense HetNets will lay the foundations for 5G futures, and ease the pain of moving to a new generation of networks.

Among the topics to be debated by this illustrious team of small cell experts and 5G visionaries will be:

Which spectrum bands will be most important to expanding the 5G business case?

In which geographies, vertical markets and use cases will 5G have the earliest impact?

How important is virtualization in making small cell networks 5G-ready?

As networks densify, how will site, backhaul and management challenges be addressed?

These are just some of the topics which will be tackled, and you will have the chance to ask your own questions to these experts too, or share your own views during the floor debate.

So do clear your MWC dance card at 4pm on Tuesday 28 and come along for some lively debate and a session which promises to remain hype-free and focused on the 5G issues of real interest to the industry today.